Police Chase Nets Suspect

POMPANO BEACH -- A routine suspicious-person check about 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday turned into a chase that ended with 13 shots being fired and a wounded suspect in custody.

Officer Sam Cavalieri answered the call from residents at an apartment building in the 200 block of Southeast Sixth Street. The caller told police a man who had been seen near the building`s swimming pool several times in the past few weeks was parked in the building`s lot.

When the man saw Cavalieri, he drove away and tried to ram the officer, police said. Officer Edward MacDougall, who also responded to the call, chased the car to Atlantic Boulevard and onto northbound Interstate 95.

The car left I-95 at Southwest 10th Street in Deerfield Beach and stalled. When MacDougall and Cavalieri approached, the man restarted his car and tried to ram both officers, police said.

``MacDougall fired 12 shots at the car after he thought Cavalieri had been hit by the car,`` police spokeswoman Sandra King said. ``He shot as the car veered past him.``

Cavalieri, who had managed to jump out of the way, fired one shot from the ground.

The man, wounded three times in the left arm and shoulder, drove south in the northbound lane of I-95 until he lost control and crashed through a chain- link fence at a former highway rest stop. He jumped from the car and ran.

Robert Delgreco, 30, of Boca Raton, was arrested about 7 a.m. about two miles away from where he wrecked, police said. He is in custody in North Broward Medical Center and is in stable condition.

An internal affairs investigation into the shooting is under way. Neither man has been placed on leave, King said.